Annan: Climate Change as Dangerous as WMD

Mary Katharine Ham | November 16, 2006 10:43 AM

And he lacerated the fast-shrinking minority of politicians or scientists who still denied there was any threat as "out of step, out of arguments and out of time."...

Annan declared: "The message is clear. Global climate change must take its place alongside those threats -- conflict, poverty, the proliferation of deadly weapons -- that have traditionally monopolised first-order political attention."

This message? Not as clear to him.

In that same vein, the man who would guard us from this idiocy is in danger of losing his post. The White House is still trying to bring Bolton's nomination to the floor:

"The White House is continuing to search for ways to get the nomination to the floor of the Senate," Bolton told CNN. "And I think we've believed for 18 months now that if I could get a straight up or down vote, I'd be confirmed."
"So I'm glad they are continuing to push for it," Bolton said. "I'd actually like that vote."

But the new culture of the Senate seems to portend that he's done-zo:

John Bolton's troubled nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is "going nowhere," a key Democratic senator said on Wednesday after Democrats scored big in mid-term elections.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is expected to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if Democratic control of the U.S. Senate is formally confirmed, told reporters:

"I never saw a real enthusiasm (for Bolton's nomination) on the Republican side to begin with. There's none on our side. And I think John Bolton's going nowhere."